HOME ECONOMICS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 16260, 29 October 1920, Page 9

HOME ECONOMICS.

REPLY TO HOUSEHOLD HEAD.* . T6 THE EDTTOB. Sir,—A letter signed “Household Head ’ has just come'under my notice and it has made me long for a chat with that wife I It must have been his twin who married a friend of mine and I never come away from her home without saying “ Heaven keep me from matrimony if that’s what it means.” Wien a man marries is it a housekeeper he looks for or a co-homemaker —is it a servant he expects or a wife, companion, chump (I assure you no woman marries with the idea of gaining (P) a crusty employer or an autocratic boss, and too often she finds that is all she has.) “ Household Head ” Bays: “No housekeeper worth her salt, ’ etc. But he is not really - referring to housekeepers; he is referring to fives whose duties include wider and greater things than even tho cooking of his lordship’s food and the washing of dishes; few women would have any difficulty in tilling the bill if that was all that had to bo done. It is a different matter when to the cooking and washing up you add on the making of ■ beds and cleaning of rooms, lighting of fires, sweeping' of flues, the making and mending, washing and ironing of clothes, fowls to feed, garden to care for, the shopping, the catering, the mothering of. some precious children and .the sick nursing at times, the social duties (for be tike} position in life never so humble- one’s “ neighbour ” I has a claim), and over and under and 1 through all the constant thought'and effort as to how to make the household , allowance meet the necessary expenses —and this programme, more or less, , has to be Carried through day and 1 daily—there is no half-holiday for the ' wife and mother, and very little she 1 knows of a Sabbath day’s rest either. ■ f would like to give our friend “ House 1 hold Head” a month in his wife’s shoesA-at the end of that time I can I see him advocating not only communal ! kitchens but also communal nurseries, communal house-cleaning circles, communal sewing societies, Communal laundries—in fact,.a communal company for every activity represented inside his home, thus leaving him in peace to retire to his verandah, smoke his pip 0 and say—" Hang it all-a man must hvo. Yes, and so must his wife, iet tho communal kitchens come, and the sooner the better. “Household i -ad'’ need not fear that they .will L...e all the cooking (much less all the work) out of his wife’s hands. No company of experts, be they ever so efficient or so generously paid, will provide him with a breakfast at the early hour at which he sometimes requires it It is only the good wife (for whose com’ fort and recreation he cares so littlej who will rise betimes, make his porridge to his taste, cook the eggs to a turn, and serve the toast just right. " Household Head ” .seems scared Jest

1 the communal kitchen folk would go on strike (and they would, too, if he was as exacting with them as he is at home), but what if the good wives ; should do so—-haven't they any right to 1 shorter hours and a few privileges ? One meal per day from a communal kitchen won’t make your wife a butterfly, good sir; it will only help to bring back some of her lost youth and spirit, v and perhaps that change will take you back to the days when you talked of i doing anything in the world for her 1 1 And one thing more.' Women don’t want or need “Household Heads.” What they look for and what they respond best to is “partnership” in a home-making company. If ■ husbands Would even occasionally take a hand in the household work, say light the fire, clean the flues (not much, did I hear you say?), carry the coals, feed the fowls, clean all the bootSj give attendance rather than seek it, etc., etc., etc., wives would not feel so much in need of the relief which a communal kitchen offers and men like “ Household Head ” would have a better understanding of what “running a home ” really means, and consequently a little more sympathy. Surely it ought to be a true man’s “ joy and duty ’Mo consider the welfare and the well-being of the woman who makes his home.- 1 -! am, etc., ONE WHO. LOOKING ON, FAS LEARNT.